Red and Blue make Purple

miracufic

@agreste-dupain-cheng

Marinette tries to keep her hands from trembling as she sews.

Okay.

Holy fuck.

That was, uh, unexpected. The same way that having a landmine go off was unexpected.

Holy. Fuck.

Chat is lying. Or joking again. Or just being a flirty hot rabbit as per usual.

She can feel her breathing start to pick up its pace, and forces herself to calm down.

But there hadn’t been a lie in the infinitesimal tremble of his voice, or the way in which his face had gone carefully blank, or in his tight, controlled breaths as he lounges on her chaise.

He loves her. He loves Ladybug, so this has to be a lie.

Marinette’s hands jerk in a sudden spasm of fury, and the needle tears through the fabric. She curses, sudden tears springing to her eyes, and pulls her ruined project free, tossing the ruined fabric to the floor.

“Princess?”

Shut up.

“Princess, are you all right?”

Shut up.

Chat pads over to her and kneels, taking her trembling hands in his own.

“Princess?” he asks again, his voice soft and calm and genuine.

Marinette pulls her hands from his and shoves him, hard. Chat goes over backwards, landing hard on his back.

“Damn you, kitty,” she spits, an instant before she pounces upon him.

miracufic

“Tonight was a mistake,” she tells him as he’s about to leave that night.

He pauses and lowers himself from the railing of her terrace. “A mistake?”

“Yes,” Marinette says. “A mistake.”

Chat pauses for a minute. “I fail to see how,” he says, reaching out to cradle her cheek; she slaps his hand away.

“Well I don’t,” she says. “You can’t love me.”

“I do,” he says, and there’s the quiet tremble in his voice again, but Marinette can’t stop the momentum of her words now as they burn forth from her lips.

“I don’t love you,” she says forcefully. “I don’t. I can’t. I can’t ever. What part of that don’t you get?”

His face goes still again as she speaks. “I loved Ladybug,” he says, “even though she didn’t love me back.”

“Well maybe you should stop loving girls who don’t care about you.”

She regrets the words almost as soon as they spill forth, and she whirls and turns her back on him. She doesn’t want to see his face.

“What’s the matter?” Chat murmurs, coming up behind her. He doesn’t touch her, but stands there, close enough that she can feel the heat of him on her back.

“I don’t love you,” she says. “I love someone else.”

“You kissed me,” he says.

“A mistake.”

He pauses before he speaks again, and for the first time a hint of anger sears in his words. “Why are you so against us?” he asks.

“I love someone else,” she repeats.

He pauses, then withdraws.

“As you wish, then,” he says, before a whoosh of air marks his departure.

The next morning, Adrien studiously avoids looking at her.

artgirllullaby

*takes a deep breath and tries to resist the urge of doing part 3*

shishitsunari

No no what are you doing there still.
We need to fix this pls something is broken

aknazer

@agreste-dupain-cheng

@miracufic

@artgurllullaby

@shishitsunari

(How the fresh fuck do I link previous authors? #PleaseSaveMe)

A week later, Adrien is still avoiding Marinette.

It’s not obvious, if you’re not looking for it. He’s still perfectly polite during their interactions, but the warmth she’d previously associated with them is gone. He was no longer seeking her out: there’s no glancing at her over his shoulder or comments or conversations just for her. Everything is done within the context of the group, and largely routed through Nino or Alya.

Not that the other two haven’t picked up on it. They know Adrien. But to the rest of the class, it’s business as usual.

Marinette stood in the doorway, looking into the courtyard. Adrien was sitting on the bleachers, eyes flicking back and forth between the book at his side and the notebook balanced on his knee. A pencil scratched across the paper, diligently copying notes. As she watched, Adrien’s other hand shifted, picking up an apple and taking a bite, absently setting it back down as he continued writing.

The scene wasn’t too unusual - exams were coming up, and these ones would determine the courses and tracks they were eligible to take next year in Lycee. People were studying and stressing in equal measure, even the one who were normally rather indifferent to their studies.

Adrien, however, was well ahead of his peers. It wasn’t something he spoke of, but Nino had mentioned it once in passing, and Marinette and Alya had certainly seen the evidence for themselves over the course of their time with him. Apparently the tutors Gabriel hired were as demanding as the man himself - if Nino were to be believed, Adrien could probably sit the Baccelauréat Exams, instead of the Lycee Entrance Exams. And even if that was perhaps stretching the facts a bit, Marinette knew from their shared study sessions that he was well ahead of the rest of them.

But here he was, study with all of the intensity of someone who was desperately attempting to catch up, rather than someone who was already ahead. And even if Marinette had believed that he was simply busy, and even if she’d believed that he was stressed over upcoming exams, today he’d done something he’d never done before: he’d turned down lunch at her parents patissiere. In the year and a half since he’d first come over her house (to practice for the gaming tournament) Adrien had never turned down an invitation to break his diet at her parent’s bakery.

“You should talk to him.” Alya muttered from her side.

“Me?” Marinette squeaked, eyes blowing wide as her head whipped around. “Why me!?”

“He’ll talk to you.” Alya said. “More than me, anyway.”

“But- but- Nino is his friend.” Marinette whined. “He’ll talk to Nino more than me.”

“You’d be surprised.” Alya muttered. “Why don’t you try? Nino is worried, too.”

Marinette swallowed compulsively and licked her suddenly dry lips. Taking a deep breath, she meandered forward as casually as she could, thankfully not tripping over anything, like random pieces of litter or thin air, on the way across the courtyard.

Adrien didn’t even glance up at her approach.

“Um, h-hi, Adrien.” Marinette smiled.

Adrien kept writing. Marinette blinked: it was unlike Adrien to completely ignore anyone. Turning, she shot Alya a desperate look, but her friend only shrugged back at her. Marinette shifted from foot to foot, unsure of how to proceed until Adrien, set his pencil down, reaching up to scratch the side of his neck as his other hand drifted down towards the bench. As he shifted, Marinette caught the dark flash of his earbuds, and mentally slapped herself in the forehead.

Marinette reached out, boldly tapping his knee, right as Adrien picked up the apple that was sitting next to him. Adrien jerked, the apple flying out of his hand and his notebook slipping off of his knee as he started.

“Oh! Oh, sorry!” Marinette gasped, reaching out to grab the apple as it sailed through the air, feeling the heat creep into her cheeks as Adrien turned to her, blinking. Reaching up, he slipped an earphone out of one ear, accepting the apple back as his eyebrow raised speculatively. One of Nino’s mixes, a compilation of Adrien’s own piano playing and electronic music, could be faintly heard.

“I’m really sorry.” Marinette repeated, shifting nervously. “I didn’t mean to surprise you.”

“No, it’s alright. I probably shouldn’t have had my music so loud.” Adrien replied politely. “Was there something I could help you with?”

“Oh. Um, well, you missed lunch with us, so..” Marinette mumbled, nervously holding out the danish that Nino had told her was Adrien’s favorite kind.

“Thank you.” Adrien took the small box, corners of his lips twitching as he glanced in the clear cellophane window on the box top before setting it next to him. His gaze returned to hers.

Marinette’s heart thudded painfully in her chest as his bright green eyes stared placidly into hers. “So…” She fought the urge to fidget as the silence stretched between them.

“So….?” Adrien repeated, eyebrows raising questioningly.

“I was wondering, um, how you’re doing?” Marinette tucked one hand into her back pocket, the other rising to tuck her hair behind her ear nervously.

“I’m fine.” Adrien said politely. “Just studying. How are you?”

“Oh, um, I’m…okay. Doing well!” Marinette shifted and tried not to think of a different pair of green eyes, so different from Adrien’s neutral gaze, and forcefully ignored the way her chest constricted at the memory of them. “But you seem… off. Are you sure you’re alright? N-Nino is worried. Um! That you’re, you know, overdoing it…or something.” She trailed off nervously.

Adrien laughed, and the sound was like the tinkling of bells while his smile beamed like a warm spring breeze. And Marinette tried not to cringe, because it was all fake, fake, fake.

“I’m going to make it, don’t worry.” Adrien waved off her concerns. “But I do need to finish this so…”

The dismissal was clear, and Marinette’s gut twisted as she forced herself to return his fake smile with one of her own before she turned to make her way back to where Alya hovered anxiously.

“You’re not fooling anybody.” Plagg muttered from inside his shirt.

“Correction: I’m fooling almost everybody.” Adrien replied, staring blankly at his textbook as he pretended to read.

“You’re not fooling her. Or the other two.” Plagg retorted.

“Maybe not.” Adrien allowed. “But it’s almost summer vacation, and then onto Lycee, so I’m not worried about it.”

“She cares for you.” Plagg said.

“Maybe she likes Adrien, but she loves Gabriel Agreste’s son.” He muttered bitterly. “She wants the pretty boy who sits politely, talks quietly, and behaves impeccably. She doesn’t actually want me - she wants the person my father wants me to be. That’s not who I am.”

Inside his shirt, Plagg sighs quietly.

doorofinfinity

@aknazer

Holy shit! This is so much better that the other line with Akuma Mari. God bless you. Man, I so wanna follow up with this one.

doorofinfinity

@agreste-dupain-cheng

@miracufic

@shishitsunari

@aknazer

He breathed in and coughed out. His senses were revolving around him like a tornado and he couldn’t focus on either. His eyes were full of tears, there was a ringing in his ears and his nose burned.

Bright lights, fuzzy colors, muted sounds.

A sickening stench of smoke.

Barely supporting himself with his arms he looked up, but all he distinguished were the towers of burning orange around him. Orange over dark green and brown. A fire.

A memory came back to him. He had been fighting, near the Jardin des Plantes. He- why was he fighting, again?

Akuma, right. A… clown? Yes, a clown on a monocycle with white face paint, two big tufs of orange hair, a colorful suit, oversized red shoes, four arms… yeah, four arms. It was juggling bowl pins, swords, torches, a kid or three…

Yeah, your typical akuma, dangerous and downright insane.

Finally, the shapes started coming together and the ringing was a lot less annoying, but it persisted. He stood upright and looked around. The garden around him was pretty scorched, but he supposed it could be worse. For some reason that he had yet to remember, he was standing in a small crater near a sidewalk. He looked upwards, and saw the circus’ carp flying over Notre Dame like an OVNI.

Right, he had been sent flying. The clown had eaten the torch and was suddenly spewing fire like a dragon. Ladybug had yet to arrive, and He was running around it when suddenly-

Marinette

The clown had shot her a fireball and he jumped in front of her before his mind could catch up with his body. He looked back to the flying circus.

That clown sure packed a punch.

He didn’t realize he had already been running towards the Seine and just stopped before he could fall off the railings.

“Chat!”

He turned and almost fell when Ladybug barreled him with a hug. A quick one, but warm and filled with affection. He, wide-eyed and unsure of what to do, stopped himself from purring. Suddenly, she released him, almost pushing him away, and returned to the cold demeanor she had shown him for a pair of weeks now. She wasn’t looking him in the eyes when she coldly spoke again “Well, you are a little singed, but other than that you seem fine.” His cat ears dropped.

“Y-yeah, maybe, but I think falling off the Eiffel Tower is still pretty worse,” He said with little mirth. “Where were you? It took you a lot longer to arrive today- wait, when did you come? You saw my little bullet man performance?”

Her smile broadened a little and looked at him from the corner of her eye. “I just arrived in time to watch you bravely jump in front of Marinette. She’s not hurt at all, don’t worry.” Chat visibly deflated in relief. And then, to Ladybug’s surprise, he glared the circus with a hate she didn’t know he was capable. She turned to look at him fully

“Chat?”

“Let’s go.” He said before he jumped to the roof of the building neighbor to the Garden, the University of Pierre and Marie Curie. However, Ladybug stayed behind, the anger in his voice had left her recoiling. Why did was he like that? Because of her, because of Marinette? He hadn’t turned like he did just now when he had saved her from the Gamer’s laser. So then why-

I think I’m in love with you and I’m terrified

No.

She could ponder about this later, now she couldn’t keep her partner waiting.

—————————————————————————————————–

The brief outburst of anger was forgotten by the two of them the time the clown had been defeated and the circus returned to the earth. They had left without saying a “Bien Joué”, the same way they had been doing for two weeks now. The Parisians had noticed, and some worried even if Alya had tried to downplay it a little in the Ladyblog.

Adrien and Marinette reunited with Nino and Alya outside the circus. Their outing had been utterly ruined, and it was getting dark. So, they parted, Alya and Nino in one direction, while Marinette and Adrien went to the other. He couldn’t avoid it, everybody knew the direction to his house and he still had to maintain the act, even if he felt awkward, especially if Marinette suspected something. So he racked his brain for something to talk about.

“The acrobats were pretty cool” Marinette, surprised, tripped and Adrien caught her before he could stop himself. He probably needed to do something about his habit of acting before thinking.

“S-sorry, w-what were you saying?” Adrien helped her to stand up and kept walking.

“The acrobats. They were cool flying like that”

“Y-yeah, they were.” She smiled and caught up. “And the girls doing those weird gymnastic poses were incredible! I could have had less of that clown though.”

“Me too. I heard that you almost got hurt.”

“Yeah, I’d be toast if it wasn’t for him. I hope he wasn’t hurt to much from his little bullet man performance.”

Adrien couldn’t help it, even though it would work to sell his lie, but he snickered.

“Yeah, just like when he saves Ladybug.” His smile dropped

Even if she was still a little miffed after the fiasco, she felt thankful for all those times he had taken the shot for her.

“Yeah, they make a great team.” His jaw tensed a little

“Yeah”

And before he could stop himself, he blurted “Do you think they are dating?” Thankfully, he barely maintained a level voice. Marinette almost tripped again, but she regained her balance

“Uh, what?”

“Nothing, forget about it.” To his dismay, she didn’t drop it.

“Ah, well, no, not really. They are partners, and they care about each other, but I don’t think they are dating.”

‘Do they? Do they actually care for each other, huh Marinette? Do you actually care?’ He bitterly thought and he clenched his fists in his pockets. The amicable façade he had built and maintained through the last weeks dropped instantly, but he still managed to maintain a neutral face.

Finally, he thought, they reached the point where they would part ways. He muttered a quick goodbye and turned to leave.

“Wait, Adrien,” Marinette called. He seriously debated whether to look back. He finally turned back

“I- uh, we, are your friends Adrien, and we are a worried something may be happening. You don’t have to tell us- o-or there couldn’t be anything at all. B-but still, I want you to know that we care about you.” She smiled, even though she was already expecting him to smile and say it’s nothing, or don’t worry, or whatever, and things would keep going as they’ve been going for the last few weeks.

Instead, his eyes twitched. Both of them, at the same time. The subtlest glare in the world’s history and he left without saying anything.

Her heart broke.

~~(I think I just made it worse so I won’t submit anymore)~~

shishitsunari

Well

shadowtsukiyo

Can I add to this? I really want to. It can’t just stop there.

princesskitomi

@shadowtsukiyo I wanna add too! It CAN’T stop here! I don’t care if it’s you or me, I need more!

shadowtsukiyo

@agreste-dupain-cheng

The memory of the glare had her wanting to cry, but somewhere deep inside, she knew she deserved it for the things she said to Chat Noir.

Even if it wasn’t him glare at her, to her knowledge that was, she knew she deserved it. Her fears of being loved by him—of just being a game to him to win Ladybug’s heart had her so afraid.

She wasn’t going to deny that she fucked up… that she hurt him… that there was no taking away the things she said to Chat.

When Alya was finally gone, and the room was quiet, her tears had stopped. Not because she wasn’t still sad, because she was. Her heart still ached and hurt from that one glare. Marinette had never seen Adrien so angry, and it felt bitter in the deepest reaches of her soul.

“Marinette?” Tikki’s voice was quiet and questioning, “Are you okay?”

Was she okay?

“No, Tkki… I’m not…” Marientte’s blue eyes looked vacantly up into the ceiling. Her eyes kept drifting to the hatch that lead up onto the ceiling, almost wishing for a knock or even for him to barge in and yell at her.

“You were upset, Marinette… it’s okay.” Tikki had flown up to nuzzle the ravenette’s cheek, earning a small smile from the girl. It had been a weak smile, but it was a smile nonetheless.

“I know… but that is no excuse. I hurt him, Tikki. As much as I love… loved…” She corrected herself, “I also loved Chat. He was my best friend and I should never… never have allowed myself to say those things.”

She had been unusually cruel when she was talking to him after having kissed him. That wasn’t her. That wasn’t the girl Tom and Sabine had raised… that wasn’t the girl Tikki had chosen…

“I need to apologize.” She couldn’t just go seek him out… he was only Chat in the evening of when there was an Akuma attack, and Ladybug or not, it was unsafe for her to roam Paris at night as Marinette, and she couldn’t ask to have some personal talk during an attack.

Her eyes flicked to her phone, only illuminated by a small red light to show it was charging. She reached out to pull it and the charging cable towards her. Her thumb brushed over the screen in an unlock sequence before she opened her contacts. She stared at the contact for Adrien before she just let the phone fall from her hand.

She was such a coward…

Adrien was suffocating from what he heard. Marinette was so hot and cold between how she was with Adrien and Chat Noir.

It was so much like Ladybug… He had his suspicions about her being Ladybug… he felt like she was… especially after everything.

“Plagg… I fucked up.” Adrien’s voice was choked, he wasn’t crying but he felt like he’d be sick. He wanted to dry heave and every time he so much as thought about moving away from his bed, the world spun.

Marinette…. She didn’t even know why Adrien was so upset.

She saw him glare and he watched as she weakly laughed it off and said she had to go. He watched as she got steps away and started to cry.

He had just been so angry and he wanted her to hurt as bad as she hurt him with her words… He wanted to make her feel like her heart was broken, especially as he realized she loved his façade. That she loved the model and not the boy under the mask.

Deep inside he had always known he was wrong about that, that Marinette didn’t just love the model.

What had he done…?

He just threw away a friendship with that one action, and he had no idea how to fix it. He threw away the first person to really treat him like he was normal, as both Chat and Adrien… Even if it didn’t last long as Adrien, she had been willing to yell at him about that stupid gum incident!

“Kid… just breathe. Try and breathe. Pigtails will be fine in the morning, you both can talk at your class together. Just talk to her.” Plagg wasn’t one for words of wisdom, that was usually Tikki’s thing, but his kitten needed the support.

Right now, he wished Tikki never set up her stupid “No Identity Reveal” rule she sent after Jeanne d’Arc. He understood the rule, but it was hurting both her bug and his kitten…

I was going to make this longer, but nah. I am totally inviting @toukabunni33 and @princesskitomi to add to this!

princesskitomi

@agreste-dupain-cheng

I had to add my own now!

Now, Marinette was avoiding Adrien.

The next day she asked Alya if they could switch seats with Chloe and Sabrina, and she agreed. Marinette sat in Sabrina’s seat, far away from Adrien’s sight, and everytime the blonde glanced over at the two, he would meet Alya’s glare.

As soon as class let out for lunch, Marinette was the first out the door with Alya following behind her. The girls stopped by the bakery to grab some goodies before going to sit in the park. Alya was talking while Marinette listened as she sketched in her book, and that’s how the guys found them.

“Hey, it’s the girls!” Nino said. Before Adrien could say anything, he called out to them.

“Hey, mind if we join you two?” Nino asked as he dragged Adrien with him.

“I actually have some math homework that I need to finish,” Marinette said as she stood up and grabbed her things.

“We didn’t have any math homework though…” Nino said in confusion.

Marinette faltered. “Did I say math? I-I meant…um… physics!” She then gave a nervous chuckle. “Silly me, always forgetting. I’ll see you all in class!”

“You should take Adrien with you !” Nino said as he threw his arm over the blonde’s shoulders. “My man’s a physic genius! You’ll be done in no time with his help!”

“No!” Everyone froze. Marinette hesitated. “I m-mean Adrien should stay here! It isn’t much to do, so I’ll be fine. I’m sure he would rather spend time doing anything else than help me with physics.”

She went to run off, but a hand grabbed her wrist.

Adrien pulled back, unsure why he had done it. He didn’t want her to avoid him, and he hated that she was and it was his fault. There was an awkward silence.

“I..um…” Adrien didn’t know what he should say. Suddenly, Marinette turned around, and if made him freeze. Her eyes were dull with dark circles under them, but that wasn’t what stopped him. It was the smile. A smile on her face that unnerved him for some strange reason.

“It’s okay, Adrien,” she was saying with that same smile. Her voice sounded empty and hollow. “I will be fine on my own. Goodbye.” She then slowly walked away in the direction of the school.

As she left, it dawned on Adrien. Her smile was the one he had seen in the mirror. The smile that doesn’t gives people what they want to see. His model’s smile, which meant her smile was fake.

Her smile was fake, and he was the one who did that to her.

Adrien suddenly felt sick.

I’m done! Hoped it was enjoyable!

shishitsunari

#angst